Happy Sunday everyone. Trust you are all well and 2020 is off to a good start.

So if you have been checking out my insta stories in the past 48 hours then you would have noticed a debate happening that involves African fashion, Dior, and Adesuwa. After a healthy exchange via DM, Adesuwa and I thought it would be great to open up this convo to everyone. A healthy debate is would be great.

Allow me to summarise:

1. I made a few stories encouraging designers from Africa to step up their game as the world is looking at the continent for inspiration, citing Dior’s 2020 Cruise collection as an example.

2. I also encouraged consumers to support African craftsmanship by purchasing goods esp emerging talents.

3. This led to me citing Dior’s prices as high compared to local artisans, tailors, and designers in Africa. Dior’s prices are completely justifiable as they are a luxury brand.

4. I then dug up the old Dior Cruise 2020 collection video Narrated by Adesuwa where creative director Maria categorically denies the collection was not African inspired. See video here

5. Adesuwa went on to imply that now that Dior is in Africa, the continent wouldn’t be “this mystical place that no one knows about”. I strongly objected to this statement and others like it in the video.

To be clear

I welcome

The fact that Dior worked with artisans in Africa

Inspired by African patterns and Silhouettes and craftsmanship

In fact, I welcome and celebrate everything Dior did creatively with this collection. I also do not have a problem with the price tag as it’s in keeping with Dior.

What we know today as the Beret was called felt hat hundreds of years ago. Yes, the Beret has been around that long. In fact, according to fashion historians, the Beret has been around for millennia.

This disc-like shaped headgear made of wool and worn by anyone wanting to look like an artist, a revolutionary or simply wanting to keep warm, looked nothing like its original form. It is said that the beret (then called felt) is a crossbreed between the floppy Petasos hat and the cone-shaped Pileos hat. Yeah, that’s right, I had to google both these hats to see how they looked like. Judging from their shapes, I wouldn’t argue against fashion historians. At the time, this headgear was made from felt as it was simple and cheap material to use.

It has been a minute since I did any proper blogger around here. Many apologies to you all. I curated a big event on the 20th of September with the theme ‘Fashion as An Art Form’ for Fashion Industry Insiders. My biggest event to date and I am thankful to God for an amazing team that made it a success. You can check out some of the pictures on the @fashionindustryinsiders page.

Based on the topic name “breakup to make up”, I am sure some of you thought I meant this in a relationship context lol. Far from it. I think I would leave that for your relationship gurus out there.

Break up to make up is specifically talking about suits and how to get the best out of them. The typical suit by definition is a full garment with Jacket and trouser made out of the same fabric. Full suits are generally formal or at least smart depending on the type.

If you are a ‘tailoring look’ kind of person as myself, there is one skill you must master. Breaking up full suits to form mix and match combos. This skill is particularly important if you do not have a many of suits at your disposal

So Spring Summer 2019 is in full bloom and the weather has been fantastic with the exception of a couple days here and there that has brought back some chills. However, I reckon if we survived cold winter days of minus 3 degrees then we can definitely survive a few chilly but brighter days.

For me personally, I have nothing to complain about as I came back from one of the best holiday ever, recently. I went to Freetown, Sierra Leone and I loved every minute of my 15 days out there.

Freetown, Sierra Leone

If you follow me on Instagram then you would have noticed some of the things I have been up to as I lived on my stories. Honestly, there was very little that was not instagramable. From the beautiful beaches, to the tasty and healthy food, it was truly paradise.

Sunset – Freetown, Sierra Leone

To top it all off, I had the pleasure of packing my suitcase with some of the freshest shirts from Duchamp for their SS19 collection. Duchamp is one of my favourite British brands for the simple fact that they take pride and care in making their garments. From the fabric to the patterns, all their shirts tell a story of craftsmanship. Their accessories also rate very high on my list.

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